How-To Geek

So, I'm building my first computer. I want a complete system, meaning everything I order needs to be, well, everything. In other words, UPS, monitor, and speakers are supposed to be included in the price. I was aiming for $1,600 USD, but it turned out to be closer to 1,700. I'm a risk taker who doesn't mind the bleeding edge, so I sprang for a 64GB Core SSD after talking to one of the OCZ CS reps.

I probably will not be overclocking, except to up the ram to around 1230 Mhz (covered in the lifetime warranty). My CPU cooler is probably overkill, but I would like this to run fairly quiet and as cool as possible (Longer lifespan). My main heat problems will be stemming from the GTX 260; the Zalman CPU cooler should keep my e8500 running nice and cool, the OCZ Reaper RAM has huge heatsinks designed for overclocking, and an SSD generates no heat or noise whatsoever. I'm putting a blower next to the GTX to try and keep that cool; my biggest concern is if\how the GTX 260 fits inside the Antec Three Hundred. Antec says it will fit any of the 8800 series (The 8800 GTX is roughly the size of the GTX 260, I believe), but posts on another forum lead me to believe that I may have to do some modding. I picked the e8500 over the qx6600 as I will be running older programs and games not optimized for quad core.

Without further ado, here's the components list (Price includes shipping and taxes; parts were ordered yesterday). I'd like to know if there is any issues I should be aware of, or any components I should change.

Post opinions\comments\thoughts, please. I will try to answer any questions. I believe I'm getting a good deal for my money; I configured a similar system on dell, and it cost far more than this.

Thank you.

CompFreak247,

I'm not a gamer but have two suggestions as a Builder. Try to find a copy of XP PRO Retail or OEM. XP Home just doesn't cut it in my opinion. Also (include) a $10 buck Floppy Disk Drive. You will Never Regret that small obsolete investment.

Regards,
Rick P.

I dont know which model of Acer monitor that is, but try and have a look at one in action.
They get very mixed reviews.

@whs,

The reason the Game guys like XP is that it is faster than Vista according to what I have read. Of course, if you cut off all the Security Features, then both may be the same. Cost could be another factor. Don't know.

Regards,
Rick P.

As for XP, I'm running Vista on my laptop. When vLited, it runs almost as fast as XP, and runs quite smoothly. However, I have some older games and hardware that I want on XP, plus as rah said it has a significant performance advantage over XP.

that is why i myself duel boot, i use Vista for about 99% of my computer uses, but i use XP for gaming.
i do agree with Lighthouse, i never buy a monitor without looking at it in real life first. i will go to a store, and see what i like, then go online to find it cheaper.

and i agree with whs, you can get performance close to the SSD drive with a good quality 10,000 ROM SATA drive, and you will get more space, and the same price.

Smart, rick, smart. No, vista really isn't faster then XP though - I have a good Inspiron 1720 laptop, and the default Vista install is like molasses. I put XP on there, and was amazed at how fast it ran. I later vLited Vista and put it back on; it now runs almost as fast as XP, but with Vista's handy features. Still, I need backwards compatability, and I don't want to deal with a dual boot (switching every time I go from produtivity software to games? no thanks.)

As for the hard drive vs. SSD debate, the only hard drive that can come anywhere close to the Core is the VelociRaptor, which costs $60 more, and is the fastest commonly available desktop drive. However, in every read and real-world performance test, the SSD mops the floor. Subjective reviews reveal that the SSD "feels" much faster also. I also like the no heat\noise, as I'm trying to keep things as cool as possible. Space is a non issue; believe it or not, excluding my pictures and downloads, I'm currently using ~8 GB (out of 160 GB) on my laptop, with Vista. I have all the software I need, such as Office 2007 and Photoshop Elements, but thanks to vLite and careful pruning, I keep my disk usage very low. All of my data will be stored on an external drive and backed up to my laptop, so I except disk usage to never break 10 GB with XP and some games. It might go up a bit for the latest games, but I don't plan on ever even halfway filling the 64 GB (And if I do, a 500 GB Caviar is $100).

Not bad, but 2\4 SSDs in RAID will blast away any hard disk out there. If random writes are your thing, use MFT to boost them to near what the VelociRaptor can do. 2 of the CORE series in RAID will get you over 230 MB\s real world performance; they scale quite nicely. I'm turning into an SSD believer, but I'll have to see what the reliability is like before I start trumpeting the advantages of SSD. Interesting build, but if we're talking about unlimited by cost, I'd be running a 64 core with 2 TB of memory (Was just looking at a screenshot of a system like this), and at least 4 Dell 30" flat panels. A RAID 50 setup with OCZ SSD's would be nice, along with enough battery backup to run for a week. Its nice to dream... Sadly, I'm still hindered by money. However, after hearing various opinions I decided to swap out my Zalman cooler for the latest and greatest XIGMATEK HDT-S1283. Runs almost noiseless at high speed, and should keep my E8500 within 12 C of ambient temperature... Almost unbelievable. And it costs half what the Zalman does. It also installs in seconds, compared to the Zalman that requires a bolt through connection. That's why I post on forums like these :-)

Yeah, my old p4 system from dell seems to run hot, never put a temp control program on it though. My laptop runs at a nice 50-62 C temperature under load, proving that we're getting better. Still, heat and lifespan have a direct relationship; if heat goes down, the life goes up. Sure, some say that any system will be obsolete before it fails, but both my old laptop and desktop have been having problems before I replace them. My desktop seems to have some weird motherboard malfunctions - USB ports are working sporadically, things often freeze up, the whole system is slow etc. That's why I'm getting this one with an SSD (Theroetical flash lifespan under heavy use: 51 years with a full disk overwrite 3 times a day, I would be writing far less then that). Sure, these things are never going to get anywhere close to that, but it seems to be working fairly well, enough so that they can assign a 50% higher MTBF then most drives. Amazing for a MLC flash drive. So long as this thing works, I'm going to be hooked on it.

Wow, first person in any forums not to say I'm an idiot for using SSDs :-) I think I'm going to go with Vista x86, though. I'll just buy new versions of my incompatible programs.